Need advice - Am I getting scammed? Ranking GMB page

Hi guys,

I'm a service area business with my home address listed as the address on the GMB page. In August I had 6 reviews at that point with only a few pics.. Basically an empty profile.
In my suburb (radius of suburb is about 3km) I have 2 other similar businesses (about 40 reviews) with the same GMB category service. The next closest competition are about 5-6km away.
A guy reached out to me (beginning of August) and offered to rank my GMB page top 3 in my suburb. He said he had a one month guarantee or refund or give him more time. So I figured no risk and I paid him.. Then on going monthly fees once ranked.
He showed me some previous clients with really good results tbh. That got me excited. He was showing his clients ranking top 3 for a few km away from GMB address after one month.
In his agreement he mentioned he would do a few things to rank me. Including maps seo, backlinks, posting to GMB page, youtube video ranking 1st page for that keyword (looked like he used a view / comment bot in his example client), google drive stack, google sites.

One month passed.. I was at 18 reviews at that point. He just told me to get more reviews to rank higher. I was ranked top 9 (local falcon) in a 1km radius.. Which is a small area where I live (spread out houses, away from the city)
He hadn't posted anything, created a video, created google drive sites. Only thing I could find was one backlink from a local business directory (that link didn't show up in ahrefs) that I could find by searching my business name.

Two month passed.. I was at 26 reviews. I was rank 6 for a 1km radius. And ranked about 8 or 9 for 1km away. Keep in mind there are only 2 other business in my suburb with my same service. Those other businesses have about 40 reviews.

Three months now.. Now at 40+ reviews. Ranked top 4 for 1km radius. It looks like I've jumped up two spots because 2 pages that were above me, no longer exist (duplicate listings.)
Still nothing new he has done on his end.
For the past month I have updated my website, added more content, blogs. Created heaps of backlinks in local business directories and other methods. I have been posting photos and posts daily to GMB page. I created a youtube channel with personal content about what I do. I created social media (twitter, instagram, Pinterest)pages and posting content with links back to my website. Now when you Google my business name, my website, socials and other pages about me show up.

Now in ranking I'm ranked 3rd for 0.5km away. Literally just a cross the street and he wants to charge me for that. Still not ranking top 3 for 1km away. I've got similar reviews as my competitors so that shouldn't be a problem now.

I decided to question him about it. Asking what he has done so far (looks like I've done all the work so far.)
He said he has been using traffic to rank me so far. Apparently a brute force method to break through googles latest algorithm update and this is the only reason why I'm ranking

What do you guys think? Does he sound legit?
After 3 months with 40+ reviews (similar reviews to others in the area) and only ranking top 3 for 0.5km away.

Your competitors may have oldest domains + backlinks, etc.
As you seem to know how to do this on your own, just fire the guy and keep up on your own.
Here in the forum you can find every resource you need besides what you've done.
Still, hard to tell without knowing the fees of your service provider.
It's your call op - you know everything there's to it to make an informed decision.

Just fire him and say you are tight on a budget may contact him after you have enough budget
if for the next 2-3 months you lose ranking, contact him again
if you're still ranked 3rd and even keep going up, just ditch the guy and do all the work yourself.

He charged me $400 to start then an on going fee.
He is trying to say the traffic he sent to my page cost more than $400. I find it hard to believe he is losing money by doing that. Unless he is not telling the truth.
Also I'm not sure what the cost of sending traffic is? Does that cost sound about right?

When you say old domain. That just means it was created years ago right? I guess it's not something I can do as the domain is my business name.

Does anyone know the cost of sending traffic to a GMB page? I can't imagine it would cost more than $400 to send some traffic to a GMB page?

I would say SEO takes time. You cannot rank in one month. Can i ask you, did you or the one who is doing seo analyze the competitors. Did the seo guy give you a good ROI.

I'm not sure what do you mean. I trusted him to get results. So far no calls from the page. I understand it takes time but they guy has nothing to show for 3 months apart from saying he has sent traffic. Which I don't understand what that means and if that method works.

Sounds like he told you what to do and you are ranking yourself.
Keep getting the reviews and stop paying him.
IMO, yes you were scammed but got a good lesson in return. Move on.

How much is the monthly service fee? If it’s a small amount then he is probably offering a small service in exchange.

if you’re paying $400/month+ then it would make sense to expect bigger results.

I feel like he is trying to take credit for what I have done on the side because I was not getting results. Now he wants to charge me.
Thanks guys. I'll let him go.
Cost was 400$ then 60-150$ /m fee pending on results.
I understand the fees he is charging is small but I think I can get better results for my money from someone else.

Also feels off that he says he said he has spent more money than I've paid him.

And yes it feels like he is just telling me what to do and doing nothing on his end.